Many's the Time
by wonderwoundedhearers
Summary: Stranded on a far-distant planet after a crash-landing, Up and Taz need to survive until their rescue arrives but find something else altogether different happening along the way. Short-ish M/C. Lem/Lang.
1. Chapter 1

'_Now there's no holding back,_

_I'm making to attack._

_My blood is singing with your voice,_

_I want to pour it out...'_

–_Howl, Florence and the Machine_

* * *

><p>"<em>...kzzz...come in, Comm...kzzz...come in...Comman...der...come in...kzzzzzz..."<em>

He blinks, wondering who the hell turned off the damn lights.

"_Commander...kzzz...Commander..."_

He can tell he's someplace small, somewhere enclosed, and he can feel the dig of a G.L.E.E. regulation harness across his shoulders. He's lightheaded, the burn of blood fresh in his face, and then it's like the entire world shifts as he realises he's upside-down.

"_Commander Up_?"

"Uh, yeah?" He calls out. "That's me."

"_Commander! It's...kzzz...Specs! What is...kzzz...location_?"

"Upside-down, someplace small. Oh, and it's dark."

He suddenly gets some feeling back into his hands and reaches out to touch the warm sheet metal of the place he's trapped in. He feels down towards his feet, which are strapped in by some kind of cuffs, and then up above his head to find a lever.

"_Any...kzzz...where you are...kzzz...planet_?"

He pulls the lever and then he's blinded by bright sunlight as a hatch opens right in front of his face. He blinks.

"Uh, Specs?" He swallows. "The planet? Definitely not Earth."

Three moons are shining in the bright purple sky and the sun is so close he can nearly feel the heat of it with his moustache–

He has no moustache.

"_NOOO!_"

"_Commander? Commander!"_

"My moustache! It's gone, Specs! It's _gone_."

He looks down into the pod he's in and sees nothing apart from the voice pad the transmission's coming through and the lever that opened the hatch.

He'll never be respected, never command properly again, if he's lost his moustache. Taz will never forgive him.

_Taz_.

"Oh, holy dead God, Specs! Is Taz there with ya?" He hurts his head he's trying to remember so much so quickly. "We...we were on a mission, for General McGrath. He wanted us to rendezvous with some Rangers on Hogir Nine."

"_Affirmative, Command...kzzz...you two were sent out on a shuttle to Hogir Nine...kzzz...sent us an emergency recording...kzzz...shuttle was going down...kzzz...had to implement emergency procedures...kzzz...two pods launched before...kzzz...destroyed."_

He remembers.

He remembers sitting at the control panel of the shuttle, listening to Taz in the kitchen in the compartment along getting their G.L.E.E. reg. dinners heat-blasted. He remembers seeing a blinking blue light on the scanner that meant another Galactic ship was in the vicinity and closing. He remembers laser-fire, Taz striding in with her zapper at her hip and growling about_ some stoopid_ _cabrón wanting to start some shit with two war heroes_, and then sending out the transmission for all of their unit to receive. He remembers pushing Taz down the corridor as the fires started, telling her to _just get in the damn pod already an' stop fussin' _as he took the one opposite. He remembers her smirk, cuffing herself into the harness of the emergency craft as he did the same, and then the hatches shutting. He remembers the feeling of space, his breath loud in his ears, and then hard ground. Then nothing.

His heart thuds out a wild rhythm.

"Specs? Is Taz there with _you_?" Up asks again.

"_Negative_," comes the dreaded answer, and he manages to bite back the noise that wants to escape him in an unmanly whine.

Taz could be dead. Her pod might not have launched at all. She could have been injured on impact. Her zapper might've accidentally _pew_'d during landing and killed her.

"_Oh, dead God..._"

He looks up at the moons and the purple sky, which is steadily getting darker. He can obviously breathe the atmosphere, but he doesn't have any supplies and he doesn't know where Taz landed, if she did at all.

He uncuffs his ankles.

It doesn't matter if he doesn't know a goddamn thing, because if there's even the slightest chance that she's out there then he'll go to the ends of this strange new earth to find her.

"You spoken to her, Specs?"

He sounds better now, surer, more determined.

"_Negative, Comm...kzzz...beacon's off-line_."

He braces himself against the hatch as he unbuckles his harness and slips down in the pod. He crawls out awkwardly, before tearing the voice pad out of the pod, the rest of the emergency transmitting equipment coming with it. It's battery reads 70:53:29.

The ground beneath his black combat boots is white, almost sandy, and it sticks like mud but leaves no prints behind. It's useful in the tactical sense, but bad when it comes to finding Taz. If he needs to track her, he's not going to be able to.

Up glances around. To his right, nothing but a stretch of white mud, but to his left are tall dark rocks, black against the sand and sky. He makes for the towering rocks, hoping to climb them and get a better view.

The stones are pockmarked, worn down by more than water, and he easily climbs them. Up trails his way along them, until he reaches the highest peak. The transmitter reads 70:00:35 when he's at his highest, and the static that's been crackling through is dimmed to practically nothing.

"Specs?" He pants.

"_Yes, sir?"_ It comes through loud and clear, no interruptions.

"I've found a good signal." He glances around. "No sign of Taz, though."

Way past the rocky outcroppings he can see some kind of tree-line, but everywhere else is just white mud-sand. And then he spots it, a black crater just on the outskirts of the weird yellowy forest.

"_TAZ?_"

There's no answer as he slips and skids his way down the rocks towards the crash-site. Black sand sticks to his boots, leaving his imprints in white, and he can't see any other footprints around the twisted hunk of smouldering metal that once contained Taz. Even her zapper's in bits, and he knows there's nothing to salvage.

"_Comm...kzzz..._" The static's back in full-force.

He swallows. "Yeah?"

"_We've...kzzz...your pod's beacon...kzzz...somewhere in Sector Eight...kzzz...rescue mission...kzzz...been launched_."

"Gotcha."

Up reluctantly peers inside the broken pod.

_Don't let me see, Taz. Dear dead God, don't let her be in there_.

She isn't. There's nothing but sparking wires and burnt metal, the cuffs of the harness melted to the side of the pod.

"Okay. No Taz is a good thing."

He tells himself this a couple of times, though he has no idea how she can still be alive. But she is, because if he hasn't found her body then that means there's still hope.

"Specs? Come in, soldier."

"_Here, sir_."

"I've found her pod. I'm gonna check out the forest. How long 'til the rescue team arrives?"

"_Uhh...kzzz...sir."_

"How long?"

"_Days, sir...kzzz...four days, approximately_."

"Space balls," Up mutters.

"_Yes, sir...kzzz...whole loada space balls._"

"Get off the line, Krayonder."

"_Sorry_."

He scratches where the scar across his eye splits his eyebrow.

So he's just gotta find Taz, and then survive four days, approximately, on an alien world. Water first, shelter second, food third, and looking for Taz through all of it. He can do it.

He eyes the tall and twisted yellow trees. "Okay, Specs. I'm goin' in. I'll let ya know when I find her."

There is no '_if_'.

* * *

><p>Not that she'll admit it out loud and only under extreme duress, maybe in the form of a screwdriver forcing its way through her skull, but she's lost.<p>

Her bare feet are sore, the cool strange mud only helping a little, and her shoulders are cramping from some kind of injury she got out of the crash. Her spine feels crooked, but she's a tough son of a bitch and she spits at the thought of resting.

She's been looking for Up for hours after she managed to pull the emergency release in her pod and kick herself out before it exploded into a thousand charred pieces. The sandy mud had been more forgiving than she'd thought it might've when she hit it back-first, and she'd managed to get away from the wreck without leaving any tracks behind.

But her boots had both ripped clean in two tearing her way out of the sheet metal of the pod, and she'd had to throw them away in the cracks of the rocks she'd climbed to get a better layout of the land. She hadn't been able to see Up's pod, and considering the friendly (or something a bit more sinister) fire rained down on them back in space, she'd thought open ground was out of the question and went straight for the cover of the yellow forest.

Now she's tracking through it, trying to sense where Up is or if there are any inhabitants on this strange new world. She knows if he's looking for her and he's nearby, that he'll know she's going for somewhere sheltered to regroup. She just hopes he is nearby, that he survived his pod crash at all.

"He's a tough _sonofabitch_." She tells herself. "He can take care of himself."

The roots of the trees are dug deep into the mud and every now and then she trips over one, cursing it in Spanish before carrying on deeper into the woods.

The one thing she does have in her favour is her switchblade, which is resting comfortably in her pocket and waiting for its first task. She wonders if the trees have water inside them like cacti, because their bark looks more like skin and when she brushes against them they feel cool instead of rough.

She tests her theory, palming her knife as she gouges deep into the bark of the closest tree, and waits. Nothing happens. But when she presses the blade in again with the heel of her hand pints of sweet-smelling water spill out.

She licks at a little drop on the side of her hand, testing its taste, and decides that it's as safe as can possibly be.

On closer inspection, she'd guess that the trees suck the water out of the mud around them, because the sand that covers their roots is dry as a bone. It's a useful thing to know in this place, and she already feels better about her back and bare feet as she sets off again after a gulp from the tree.

She walks for another ten minutes before she sees something promising.

Half-hidden behind a few wide yellow water trees is a cave. It's not like the black stone from earlier that stood out like a sore thumb in the bright surroundings, but sand-coloured, more white than anything. The only reason she even noticed it is because of the tree on top, the tallest she's seen yet, protecting the cave like a rabbit hole with its twisting roots and branches covering the stone and sucking up the water from the sandy rock.

She breaks for the cover just as the sun dies and clouds roll in, bringing more water and something entirely different.

At first, Taz thinks it's the ship come to finish her and Up off, but the repeating noise is more of a _boom _than a _pew_, and when she glances out from between the twisting yellow roots she sees hailstones the size of basketballs thundering from the sky.

Her gut twists in worry for Up, but there's not much she can do under the icy fire without getting herself killed.

She glances back into the cave, the dim moonlight breaking through the clouds letting her see that the rock shelter she's in ends after two or three metres. It's small, but she can stand up in it, lie down in it, and she's positive that both her and Up can fit when he gets to her.

There is no '_if_'.

* * *

><p>The first thing he sees is the cloud covering the sky, and the second is an ice-ball hurtling straight towards his head. Up ducks behind the closest tree to avoid it, and it whizzes by so close he can practically feel the hunk of frozen water's chill on his face.<p>

It bounces off of the tree behind him, like a rock from a slingshot, and comes at him again just as fast. The ice-balls keep on coming, and soon he's sprinting through the mud trying to avoid the ricocheting balls of death like he's trapped under the glass of an old-fashioned pinball machine, like the one his daddy used to have in the back room.

He trips, sprawls into the mud and slides a few feet before picking himself back up again, slipping and sliding as he gets his footing back, avoiding the giant hailstones as they bounce back and forth around him.

Up's tired, getting weaker by the second, and it's only the thought of Taz, injured, needing his help, that keeps him going through the sand and mud and onwards.

He's making his way through the dark forest, his way barely lit by the three moons' light breaking through the cloud cover, when he hears it. It's a whizzing noise that has his body tensing and the hairs on his neck rising, before the huge ice-ball of death hits him square in the back of the head.

Everything goes black as he falls, the momentum of the hit driving him through the mud and towards somewhere he can't quite tell. The last thing he knows is warmth.

* * *

><p>Taz can't believe their luck.<p>

She's staring down at the muddy Up like she's never seen him before, because how many people can say that their hopes have been delivered right to their makeshift cave doorstep?

It's got to be pure luck that drove him across the dry sand and through the vines towards her. Pure luck, only because God died so long ago and his future plans must have petered out by now.

Bubbles appear through the mud on his face, and she swoops into action, scraping off the mud blocking his nose and mouth. She carefully clears his eyes once she knows he's breathing.

"Up?" She shakes him by the shoulders. "Up? Can joo hear me?"

He can't, she realises, once she's screamed it at him right into his ear. He can't stand loud noises. He's out cold.

She doesn't want the mud to dry on his skin, but she doesn't want to go outside where the hailstones are still falling to wash him off in the little bit of rain that's also beginning to come down. So, instead, she pulls her tank over her head, taking care to remember her injured shoulders, and reaches up to slit a few roots from the tree above with her switchblade, catching the downpour in her shirt.

She wrings it out over his face, washing away the sand and mud, and then wipes down the rest of him, apart from where the mud has camouflaged his dark uniform. It'll probably turn out to be an asset.

Once he's clean, checked for obvious injuries, and lying comfortably on his side at the end of the cave, she washes her feet and then rinses her clothes out.

* * *

><p>When Up comes to, the first thing he senses is some sort of sweet smell that's all over him and everywhere. Then he blinks, half-opening his eyes in a blurry haze to see a silhouette somewhere in front of him.<p>

He's about to speak when his vision sharpens into focus and he sees her – _Taz_. He's so relieved he nearly completely misses the most important thing about her at that moment. _Nearly_.

He can only mouth his surprise.

She's topless, _completely_, and she's turned so he can see everything as she parts some vines at the mouth of the cave they seem to be in. She's dripping wet, _glistening_, and Up glances down to see a single drop of water hanging from the very tip of one of her perky nipples.

His mouth goes dry and his pants tighten as all his blood rushes south.

He's seen Taz in various states of nakedness before, but they've all been times when she's had an injury in the heat of battle or they were cleaning up after some messy fight and were just too damn tired to care about what the other thought as they stripped. But now, dripping wet, and after Bug World, where he'd realised just how much he likes Taz?

Well, it's a completely different situation, and his mouth wants to travel up that smooth stretch of skin along her spine. He wants _her_.

"Ah, good. Joo're awake."

The sound of her voice knocks him out of his spiralling thoughts. "Huh?"

He can see her smirk as she tugs on a wet vest that does nothing to hide her breasts or the fact that her nipples are still very, _very _hard.

Oh, dead God, he wants her.

"How're joo feeling?" Taz asks, crouching in front of him.

He realises he has a pounding headache, but he can't find the words to tell her. Instead, he makes sure she doesn't catch his eyes on her tits, or on her ass as she turns around to look outside of the cave again.

"I'm peachy," he grits out. "_Just peachy_."


	2. Chapter 2

'_Like some child possessed, the beast howls in my veins,  
>I want to find you, tear out all of your tenderness...'<em>

_-Howl, Florence and the Machine_

* * *

><p>The ice-ball storm leaves them stranded in the small cave in the forest, and while Up's glad they've got shelter, he's not at all comfortable with how close Taz is.<p>

The rock walls keep them pressed close as they lie side-by-side, Up on his stomach and Taz on her back. He's watching the hailstones sinking into the sand and bouncing between the trees, while Taz is trying to get a signal on the radio inside the cave.

"Dis is stoopid," she mutters.

He turns his head on his arms to look at her. "What is?"

"Dis whole mission!" She growls, twisting a couple of wires together roughly. "It reeks."

"Reeks?" His nose twitches automatically. "Ya mean, it's fishy?"

"Of course it's fishy!" She snaps the back of the receiver back into place. "The Galactic ship firing on us? De urgent mission? Everything!"

"_Taz_?"

They both straighten as the familiar voice comes through the emergency radio.

"Bug." Taz is grinning. "It worked!"

"_Uh, what worked_?"

"Not even a bit of static," Up comments proudly, squeezing Taz's shoulder.

It turns out to be a bad move, because she's still damp, wearing that wet vest, and it brings back a whole flood of feelings as he remembers that single drop of water hanging from her–

"_Well, I've got some news for you both_!"

Up manages to shake himself out of his thoughts. "Huh? What's that? Early rescue or somethin'?"

"_No, sorry. But we found out about what happened! Turns out it was a cadet and he didn't recognise the shuttle's reg. so he got a bit trigger-happy_."

"Joo're getting better at de human thing, Bug," Taz says.

"_Thanks! Krayonder taught me that trigger-happy one_."

"No surprise there," Up mutters. "So, it was all some wet-eared boy tryin' to be a hero?"

"_Sure was, Commander. Isn't it funny?"_

Taz and he both look out on the alien world where the hailstones are getting bigger and dropping harder the longer the night lasts.

"I was wrong. Joo need to work on de human thing." Taz scowls. "Dis planet sucks."

"_Oh, well, good news is that we know sort of where you are, so we'll get there a bit sooner."_

"That _is_ good news," Up says, smiling and feeling a little better about the whole thing. "How much sooner?"

"_Uh, well, not that much, but, you know, we're on our way!_"

Taz mutters something and cuts off their end of the line so she can turn to Up and reel off about the situation.

"I can't believe it! Two of deir best soldiers and dey leave us stranded on dis fucking planet!"

"Now, Taz," he soothes, hand automatically on her shoulder again. "We'll be alright."

"Oh, _yeah_? Joo see food anywhere around here, Up?"

And then, like dead God had planned it, a strange deer-like animal with a bright white hide comes tiptoeing past their hidden cave, seeming completely unbothered by the lumps of ice falling and trying to crush it.

Up's 'I told you so' smile is patently ignored by Taz, who simply mutters, "Fluke."

* * *

><p>It's strange actually, Taz thinks, the time that passes, because not only does the storm continue unabated but it doesn't <em>exactly<em> do anything else.

Sure, the hailstones were real enough when they sent Up flying into the cave, but they didn't bother the alien deer that now roasts over their campfire, or the actual flames of the fire itself. In fact, the ice-balls have been and still are hitting everywhere but near the cave.

Up had been cautious at first, lighting the fire with his lucky Zippo and dried root-vines outside of the cave on the dry sand, in case he was hit again. But he hadn't been hit, and still hasn't, and it makes Taz suspicious.

She's already told him she doesn't like it. He's already told her not to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

They eat the charred meat ravenously once Up decrees it safe. They'd already been cheated out of one meal on their ship, they didn't want to go without another by the storm worsening or another flip of fate.

When they're done, lips shining with grease and their bellies full, Taz takes up one side of the cave while Up takes up the other. They both lie on their backs, the emergency radio on Up's hip, staring up at the roof of the cave that's strangely bug-less.

"Don't joo think it's weird," Taz says, "dat dere's no life but dat one deer?"

"Come on, Taz," Up drawls lazily. "We don't know what's on this planet. It was just luck that deer came along when it did. Aren't ya _glad_ it did? I sure am."

She says nothing. She is glad, she'd thought they might have to eat the skin of the trees or starve for a while, but she can't say she's happy about the strange coincidences, because, in her experience, coincidences have always been engineered by someone or other.

"I wish I had a book," she tells him.

Up smiles, eyes closed. "I know, Taz. I know. You're always readin'."

She's always been a bit of a bibliophile, not that anyone but Up knows it, and she's always had a soft spot for the classics. When she's not training or on missions with Up, she likes to sit in her quarters for hours on end and just read. Except on Fridays. Friday nights are movie nights for her and Up, and they're always the best night of the week.

Not that she'd ever tell him that.

Thinking about Up though, well, it always leads her to the same place. Even when she's right next to him, _talking _to him, she can't help but think that she's too far away, not quite close enough for what she wants to do.

And what she wants to do scares her to death. Not literally, because she's _tough_, but if her feelings for Up were pins then she'd be one hell of a walking, talking voodoo doll.

She thinks about that time on the spaceship when they all saw Megagirl for the first time, how Up had screamed and hidden himself behind her. She still knows it wasn't because she would have been a tough shield for the robot to get through – it was because Up trusted her to protect him, and she did. Even when he kissed her back.

She thinks about that kiss a lot, that press of his lips to her spine. She'd broken out in a light sweat at the sight of Megagirl, so she doubts it was great for him, but still, his mouth was warm and she could feel his moustache, and it told her it was Up, kissing her and trusting her, making her feel good.

She's an _idiota_, she knows it, but she refuses to care. So she has feelings for Up, that doesn't make her weak! It just makes her vulnerable, vulnerable if he doesn't feel the same way. Not that she cares, of course.

But she would like to feel his mouth on her back again though, just once more, without the mistaken threat of a robot massacre hanging over them.

Suddenly, the cave shifts.

Taz is about to leap up, thinking the sand around them is sinking, when the two sides of the cave grind noisily and close in. She kicks out instinctively, trying to hold her ground as she lies down, Up pressed against her back as she turns with her arms stretched out.

Up's hands are either side of hers on the wall, leveraging his body to push back against the still-grinding rock.

She's about to pull him up and out, even though the ice-storm could kill them – at least it would be faster than being crushed to death, she thinks – when Up is suddenly pressed to every inch of her back and then the tightening space stops closing in.

Taz is panting. So is Up.

The hairs on the back of her neck salute his hot breath, his moustache-less lip, and his soft words.

"What the hell was that?"

She swallows and shrugs.

Up's hand grips her hip and she represses the shiver she wants to show. _Dios_, she wants him.

"You okay?" He asks.

She realises how close they are now that the walls have pressed them together, and how _hot_ her skin feels with just the thought of all of Up's body against hers.

Taz swallows again. "Sí. I'm good."

She sounds normal enough, and Up doesn't call her on it. She feels him move his head before he sighs.

"Storm's still pretty bad. Seems like the best of a bad lot. We'll stay here until the clouds pass and if the earth starts movin' again, well, at least we got some time to get out. Best get some sleep now, Taz."

She feels a smile curl her lip at the way none of his words were suggestions or questions. He'd taken charge and issued orders like the _real_ commander she knows he is.

"_Buenas noches_, Up."

She's asleep before she even hears his reply, his breath soft and steady against her neck.

* * *

><p>He'd like to be able to sleep, but his training won't let him have both of them unawares on a strange alien world. Up doubts he could sleep anyway, even with the chance, because although he's slept next to Taz before, this is different.<p>

He's never been pressed against her like this, never so close, and as a chill creeps into the cave and he instinctively wraps himself around her so they both stay warm, he wonders if he'll ever have the chance again.

The storm's gotta pass over eventually, and when it does they'll find some better shelter, so for now he just enjoys what he'll never feel again.

Like Taz's shoulders shifting against his chest with her breathing, or the heat of her back warm against his stomach, or her... He swallows. His arm's over her, just beneath her breasts, and he can feel their shape, their weight, and it doesn't help that her ass is pressed against him at the same time in the confined space.

It's like information overload – something he found was deadly to those robots they fought – and he can't get enough of it. He knows he's a bit older than her, and he's not as attractive as he used to be, but he's hard for her and aching, and there's this twisting in his belly that isn't anything to do with the lust and all to do with the fact he loves the red bandana off of his lieutenant.

She doesn't know – how could she when he's too chicken to tell her? – but he likes to think she has an inkling that he at least _likes _her more than someone he fought beside in some of the bloodiest battles in Earth's history. That he...you know, has _some _feelings for her.

Because he does – he _really _does – and it's getting harder and harder for him to keep his mouth shut when every day Taz says something even more interesting than the last, or she picks up another habit he can't help but fixate on, or Krayonder just won't _quit_ eyeing her up when he thinks no one's looking.

But Up is _always_ looking. How can he not? Taz is great, _better _than great, and he just wants to show her that he knows it.

He wants to be able to go to her quarters without the pretence of _The Karate Kid_ to get close to her. He wants to be able to input that code to her rooms, go in, climb in her bed with her and hear her tell him something, _anything_, before he falls asleep with her. He wants to wake up in the morning, the room as quiet as the black space outside of the ship, and he wants to kiss her, wake her up, tease her until he can watch her riding him...

It's a fantasy, one that's been going on for quite some time, but he hopes, one day, it'll come true.

His mouth finds the soft skin of her shoulder. Her hair smells sweet.

"You'll see soon, Taz. I'll show ya."

If he doesn't chicken out again of course...like all the other times. Like when he bought her those Fredic space roses that change colour – it was a few years ago and it wasn't a special occasion, and he ended up flushing them into space because he thought she'd get the wrong idea. Or the _right _one, really.

It's all one long chase with Taz, Up thinks, except she doesn't know he's chasing her.

He doesn't want to fall asleep, he _can't_, but with his lips against her skin and her hair smelling so damn _nice_, well...it happens anyway.

He likes her being there, against him, holding her.

* * *

><p>She knows it's still dark when she wakes. She doesn't want it to be morning just yet, because morning means moving out of Up's warmth.<p>

One of his hands is clutching hers above her head, and the other is across her stomach, fingers gently flexing in sleep. Luckily, she's not ticklish. Unluckily, it's a sensation that makes her squirm pleasantly.

She likes his hands, always has, and she has good reason. Up's hands are big, so strong she's seen him decapitate a robot with them, and yet they can be unbelievably gentle.

His fingertips are soft against the sliver of her belly open to him in the gap between her vest and pants. His thumb rests over her navel, and when it twitches it sends thousands of fluttering things crashing through her chest.

Carefully, beneath his finely-muscled arm, she turns over.

His brow creases, but it smoothes out once his fingers find purchase on her back. His hand slips up underneath her vest, pressing her close to him by the small of her back, and she has to fight to keep her cool.

She's always been passionate, and she'd like nothing better than to show Up just how passionate she can be. She might be brave, but when it comes to telling someone you like them...well, no one does it, although she can't quite remember why.

He doesn't look much younger when he sleeps, or less scarred, but she likes him unaware of her eyeing him nonetheless. He's best when he's alert, when she can see that sheen of battle-lust in his eyes, but she likes it when he's tired too, when he just can't keep that goofy, lazy smile off of his face.

She likes it when they have _time_, and then, like an _idiota_, she realises that on this planet, with their rescue so far away, all they actually have is time.

Taz shuffles closer, not that there's much of a gap to close, and Up unconsciously shifts in his sleep so his body is protecting hers.

She looks at his mouth, free of his moustache, and wonders how his lips look so...much better. She likes the moustache, but she's always thought it would tickle if she, you know, _kissed_ him.

She could do it now though, without it tickling and while he's asleep, without him even knowing, and then if she didn't like it she wouldn't have to embarrass herself telling him she likes him. Although, she's completely sure she would like it, and if she did, where would it end?

She shuts herself up and she does it.

His lips are warm against hers, lax in sleep, and even though it's like kissing the back of her hand action-wise, the flurry of heat that erupts through her is more than nothing. _So much more_.

Up's breathing hitches against her mouth and she looks up, surprised her eyes are shut, to see those bright blues fixed on her without a shred of sleep in them.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note<strong>: Thanks for the reads and reviews! More chapters to come!


	3. Chapter 3

'_The fabric of your flesh, pure as a wedding dress,_

_Until I wrap myself inside your arms I cannot rest...'_

–_Howl, Florence and the Machine_

* * *

><p>It takes a few seconds for Up to realise that, yes, Taz does have her mouth on him, yes, she is awake and aware she's doing it, and, yes, it is a kiss.<p>

He's stunned, floored by how _warm_ she is, and once he cottons on to the fact she's _kissing_ him, he realises just how many things are exploding inside of him. Not like fireworks, or electricity, but more like a thousand tiny robots waging war against each other inside his body. Some of them using lasers to make his stomach heat and burn, and others punching his gut, making it twist and spurring him into action.

He's not sure how long he's been kissing her back for, but when he realises his lips are pressed firmly against hers...well, the robots inside him rebel even harder and send him spiralling.

He feels sick, he feels happy, but most of all he feels like he's hovering a clear foot off the ground.

Their eyes are open, their mouths fused, and Up's heart is beating out of his chest.

He's hard again, one of his hands fisted in the back of Taz's vest, and one of his legs is keeping hers against him. He can feel her heat, smell her hair, and her usually-dark eyes are black.

He moans.

The sound is tiny, hardly there at all, but he feels it in his chest and in his throat and it tickles his lips as it vibrates against Taz's in their kiss.

And then she's all over him like a rash.

He can't get enough of her, of her tongue trying to find his, of her hands on his shoulders with her thumbs pressed to the pulsing heartbeat in his neck, of her thighs squeezing his, of her black hair tickling his face, of her hips moving against him...

"_Taz_... Taz."

She pulls back as he raggedly pants against her name against her mouth. Her face is pinched.

"Sí, Commander?"

"Don't call me commander at a time like this," he practically growls, even as his cock disagrees with a solid _jerk_.

"A time like what?" She's breathless too, and her eyes are all shiny.

Up grabs her hands as she makes to move back. He's dealt with her before like this, even though it's very rare to see her on the verge of it. In fact, it's so rare, he's only ever seen it twice – once when they watched _Titanic_, and the other when her brother died in the battle for Chicago.

He had never thought he would see her cry enough for him to know that he hates it when she does, but now he has and it just pulls at the little loose strings of his heart.

But Taz sobers up as soon as they both seem to realise he's looking up at her with his 'soft' expression, the one he saves for babies and puppies.

She looks mad enough to spit, and she does, right over his head, before ripping her hands out of his and flying out of the cave in one hell of a fury.

Up's too stunned to follow. He was going to tell her everything – _everything_ – after explaining that he didn't want to be called commander by her when he confessed his feelings, but he screwed it up. _Again_.

He was going to tell her that he's learnt it's alright to cry, but she's gone now, and he only has enough strength and presence of mind to check the sky's not raining giant hailstones still before collapsing completely.

He's had the best kiss of his life, and now he's cold and alone except for the radio crackling his name loudly on his hip.

"Yeah?" Up grunts, lifting the radio to his lips and rolling his eyes at who comes through from the other end. "Get off the line, Krayonder. I don't need to hear about your stupid shit right now."

"_Jeez! Take a pill, Commander!_ _Specs just told me to tell you that we're closing in on your position – two days, max._"

Two days. Two days before they aren't alone anymore, and Up knows he just can't waste this opportunity.

* * *

><p>Taz doesn't beat herself up about it, because what good will that do? No. She just thinks it through a couple of times – the kiss, the sudden urge to apologise for it at Up's tone of voice after breaking away, the look on his face that just <em>tore<em> into her – and makes the decision to live in the _estúpido_ yellow forest until their rescue arrives. And then never speak to Up ever, _ever_ again.

Because what will he think when he sees her, _talks_ to her again? 'There's the girl that kissed me, there's the girl that almost cried, and there's the girl that I didn't have the chance to say _thanks, but no thanks_ to.'

She grinds her forehead against the soft skin of the tree she's resting against. If the bark were any thicker she'd be tempted to bash her brains out on it, but as it is she's out of luck.

She turns, spies a rock, and sits.

The sand's wet around her, sucking at her feet, but the sky's clear as the sun begins to break over the furthest treetops, the three moons shining their brightest before they fade out. She watches some ice fragments from the hailstones sink into the sand, swallowed up by the white.

It's not cold at all, warm really, but she feels a chill through her now-dry clothes and she knows it's all to do with Up.

She's really fucked up.

Kissing a superior officer _and_ a friend? She's fucked up big time – epically, in fact. But she'd thought he'd felt it too, that tug in the stomach that made her draw her face closer to his, to eventually _meet_.

She _is _a tough _sonofabitch_, but right now...well, she's feeling a little...soft.

Taz suddenly hears him blundering through the forest practically a mile off. He's not even attempting stealth.

"What?" She asks out-loud when his footfalls stop nearby.

"Uh, not much." He coughs. "Actually, no... Uh, there..._is_ much."

Taz glances at him – he looks a bit wild. "Huh?"

He comes closer, moustache-less, blue eyes trained directly on her as if she's about to bolt. He thinks she might run again.

"I'm okay," Taz tells Up, shaking some of the mud off her feet. "I panicked."

It's horrible to admit it, but she has and she knows he won't judge her for it. Instead of replying, he blows her comment off.

"I need to tell ya some things, Taz. _A lot _of things."

"Okay."

He sits down on the other end of the long, flat rock but doesn't make to move any closer, just shifts so he's facing her and twists his fingers together in his lap. She sees his lip shine with sweat. He's nervous, and now she's _really_ listening for what he has to say.

He clears his throat. "Okay, well, I like you."

Taz feels her eyebrows hitch up high on her forehead. Up's looking something similar, like he can't believe he really said what he did so quickly and so bluntly.

Is she blushing? She feels like she is. But that can't be right, because she _doesn't_ blush. Not ever. But...

"Joo like me?" She asks, rubbing at one of her embarrassment-hot ears.

Up swallows loudly. "Yeah. A lot. Like...more than like."

"_More _than like?"

Why's she still talking? Shouldn't she be kissing him or something else right now instead of questioning him? She's making sure he understands what he's saying, because then, and _only_ then, will she begin to.

He nods shakily, his head bobbing up and down quickly. "Yeah. Sorta like...not like at all. Sorta like..._love_."

Her heart is practically crashing in her chest up until that very last word, and then it stops dead, mid-beat. She doesn't bother asking him whether he's serious, because he damn well looks it.

"Fuck."

Up cracks a smile, small as it is. "Yeah. Fuck."

"I didn't mean to say dat," she mutters, dazed.

"You..." He swallows again. "You mean to say anythin' else? 'Cause that would be _great_."

She thinks it through before answering, because there's one part of her that is impulsive and so sure about him that it just wants to scream everything she feels out for the alien world to hear. But the rest of her knows that he deserves her _absolute_ and _definite _answer, not just the first thing that pops into her head.

Taz remembers all the times she'd wanted to do something about her feelings for him before, the uncertainty of his reaction, the frustration with being too much of a coward to go through with it, and she remembers how much she enjoys just taking a flight with him, or watching a movie. She knows it's more than enough to be sure of herself and of him.

She sits a little closer, and Up's creased brow rises a bit in something that looks a lot like hope. She can't help but think him..._sweet_.

Taz presses her leg to his, bumping their knees. "I like joo, too." His jaw drops and a rush of something inexplicable rushes through her at the smile he suddenly shines her way. "No, wait...I _more_ than like joo, too."

She can't quite bring herself to say love. It's already getting a little too soft for comfort in this place, not that Up obviously minds. He's looking awed.

He reaches forward to put his hand on her knee, without asking or pausing for permission. Taz likes that from him – she likes that _a lot_.

His hand is warm and large, squeezing her thigh, and she feels a familiar tingle low in her gut beginning to burn for him. His eyes have turned navy.

"_Oh, Taz_," Up drawls, and the next thing she knows he's kissing her like she's the most goddamn desirable thing in the whole wide universe.

His arms come about her waist as hers wind about his neck, gripping, and then his tongue touches hers and she's lost to the fire smouldering in her belly, beginning to rage. It doesn't help that he's so muscled against her, that his chest and arms are warm and he smells so familiar and so _good_.

"_Dios_," she hisses between their lips as he pulls her onto his lap.

She can feel him, _there_, how hard he is for her, and even though he's just confessed his love for her, she can't help but think how perfectly _them_ it is to be so _un-_tender with each other. They can be gentle, but they both like a challenge. And now, with those feelings all out in the open, Taz wants nothing more than to push him and see how far she can drive him 'til he falls off of the invisible edge.

She unbuckles his belt with a _clink_.

Up rears back in obvious surprise, but it isn't more than a second before his hands are under her vest and they are so _warm_.

Taz gasps. She feels her skin go up in a shock of goosebumps and her nipples begin to ache in that way she knows means that they're poking against her top.

Up's eyes dart down, and when they come back up they're practically black. He licks his lip, bites it, and then he's kissing her again, even harder than before, as his palms find her breasts.

She's not large by any means, never has been, but she's always made up for that in one way or another in everything she does. Her lack of cleavage is made up by the fact that her breasts are soft and perky, tip-tilted with sensitive nipples.

As she gasps again into Up's mouth, she knows they both appreciate her heightened sensitivity. She feels it in the way his cock jerks against her thigh beneath his pants.

Taz runs the fingertips of one hand down his spine as the other slips his zipper open, and then he's there, hard in her hand, damp at the tip and so very thick.

Her breath hitches in her throat, their eyes meet, and then their clothes leave their bodies so quickly she hardly remembers each tearing the other's shirt off a few seconds after the fact.

Up's mouth finds her neck, her shoulder, her collarbone, her nipple, as his hands work off her pants. She's bare before she really knows it, rocking against his lap, _grinding_, and she's shameless in the way she rubs against his cock, _skin-to-skin_.

Taz leverages herself, places him at the perfect point, and then slides down his tall and muscular body as her hands thrust themselves into his mussed, silver hair.

"_Fuck_!"

Either of them could have said it, and she's sure both of them don't know who really did.

He's stretching her in ways she's never been filled before, and it may have been a year or so since she's taken a guy this way, but, _fuck_, it feels good, and his thickness is only making it better. The pain is beautiful as his hips snap into hers, her own rising and falling to meet them.

Up's watching her from between her breasts, tongue pressed to her sternum as one of his hands slide down her stomach in search of something. He finds it when she nearly screams.

His thumb rubs her clit masterfully, and the wave that breaks over her as she comes doesn't just sweep only her away. Her nails biting into his scalp, Up groans and she feels him come apart inside of her, hot and thick and wet.

"Holy hell," he breathes.

Taz nods. She can't make a sound.

They're both sweaty, shaking a bit, but the bliss lacing her blood doesn't diminish an inch even after her orgasm fades. He kisses her neck and pulls her close, hands pressed between her shoulder blades and against the small of her damp back. She pulls her arms tight around him.

They're _cuddling_, and it doesn't feel awkward or _estúpido_. In fact, it feels kind of...nice.

"I'm so happy you feel the same," Up says against her neck, muffled and soft.

"Me, too."


	4. Chapter 4

'_Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers,_

_Starts so soft and sweet, and turns them to hunters...'_

–_Howl, Florence and the Machine_

* * *

><p>Fresh rain had driven them back to their cave, even though they're both a bit wary after the wall-crushing incident. But it's their only form of shelter, and they both know they don't have much longer to wait for their rescue.<p>

Up takes the radio in one hand, his other arm wrapped around Taz's shoulders as she sits next to him, her head against his chest. It had taken them a while to get moving after their..._display_ in the middle of the forest, and even now they're both barely dressed, zippers and buttons haphazardly done up.

He turns the radio on. "Come in."

"_Hey, Commander!_"

Up sees Taz roll her eyes as February comes through loud and clear.

"February, hey, any update on when we're gonna get picked up?"

"_Oh, yeah! Totally! We're all on our way now, actually. Like, a few hours?_"

Both he and Taz stiffen. "A few hours?"

"_Yeah, Specs said something about...uhm, immediate danger? Something about the planet you're on. Anyway, Specs did something to the engines and now we're really flying! See you soon, huh?"_

Up just switches it off. "Crap."

Taz mutters something in Spanish that he can't quite catch.

"Thought we were gonna have a bit longer to ourselves," he tells her, keeping her close as she shifts. "That's okay though, right? I mean, we don't need to be here to..."

Taz looks up as he trails off, near-invisible grin in place. "Joo think joo can get rid of me dat easily, Up?"

He sighs. "Nawh. You're tougher than that."

Her breath against his chest is doing things to him, and, he supposes, that's why he's fretting about an early rescue. Not because they won't be able to be together back on board a G.L.E.E. ship, or Space-Port, or even on planet leave, but because he doesn't know how public their new relationship is.

Can he kiss her in front of people? Hold her hand? Can he tell people they're together? That he loves her?

He doesn't know what she wants, and he knows he should just _ask _her but he's just worried it's going to be something he doesn't want to hear. Eventually, he ignores his heart and goes with his head.

"Are we...together?" He ventures.

Taz looks up at him. "Of course."

"And...does that mean we'll be together when we get rescued?"

Her eyebrows draw together in what he recognises as her _taking-no-shit_ expression.

"Just ask me what joo want to ask me," she tells him.

He shrugs. "Are you...my girlfriend? _Officially_?"

Taz's scoff sounds like a snort. "Joo're worried I won't want everyone to know we're together?" She doesn't wait for an answer. "Well, I do. And now we are together I can tell joo I don't like it when joo talk to Magma."

"Magma?" That's right out of left field. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing's_ wrong_ with her," Taz mutters. "She's just been trying to get joo to take her out for years."

"Oh." Up looks back with a new pair of eyes on all those times the redhead barmaid on Space-Port brushed his lap or pecked his cheek. "I never noticed."

"I know." Taz seems amused by this, her lips quirking. "Still. I don't like it."

"Okay." Up swallows a grin at her thinly-veiled jealousy. "I got one for you then."

"Shoot."

"No more shifts on your own with Krayonder. That boy's got it bad for you."

Now it's Taz's turn to look surprised, dark eyes wide. "_No_!"

"Yep." Up pulls her in close. "Remember that time you came back from trainin' in your shorts? Had to hit him upside the head before he heard a damn thing I was sayin'. Couldn't peel his eyes offa you."

She bites her lip. "I like those shorts."

"Yeah, well...me, too." He clears his throat, ears burning as she grins up at him. "Just...don't be on your own with him, please?"

"Okay."

They settle down, listening to the rain and wind and hail as they enjoy each other's warmth. Eventually, Taz's hand comes to rest on his stomach, his muscles tensing beneath her fingertips, and they make a reprise of their earlier hurried performance, the weather drowning out their cries.

* * *

><p>It's morning when she wakes, and Up is fast asleep beneath her, very extremely naked as she lies across him, legs tangled with his.<p>

She blinks out at the brightly lit forest, the yellow trees glinting wetly and the mud-like sand shining, and wonders what woke her. She knows it was something, and although it's very warm and comfortable in the cave, it just isn't right to ignore her instincts.

Although...Up's morning erection is poking persistently at her belly, and she's _so _tempted to just give in for a few moments and...well, relax.

So, she does.

Taz slips down his muscled chest, a chest covered in scars and battle wounds that only serve to build up the excitement already mounting inside her. His body is perfect, at the peak of fitness and remarkably toned, and she loves his sensitivity, the way his muscles twitch as her hair softly tickles his skin.

She comes face-to-face with the (currently) most insistent part of him. His cock is perfect in her eyes, and it doesn't feel too cliché to say that it's just her size. It's smooth, the silver hair at its base silky, and it twitches at her first teasing touch.

Taz smiles as Up lets out a half-groan, chest rising and falling that little bit quicker in his sleep.

Bringing her lips to the flushed head, she licks the single shining drop gracing the very tip. He is salty, slightly bitter, but it doesn't make her want to screw her face up at the taste, just as it doesn't really make her want more. She just wants to see him fall apart, and she's glad she doesn't have to deal with an unpleasant taste.

No, he tastes clean and warm, and it's such a turn-on.

Taz licks her palm before taking his cock in her hand, stroking it once, twice, _hard_, before running her tongue up and over, taking him into her mouth.

This is when he bolts up, eyes open wide and mouth parted in a silent expletive. She sees the whites of Up's eyes before they shut and he takes some of her hair in one hand.

He moans low in his throat, and the sound spurs her on until he's yelling at the way she's taking him inside her mouth, sucking hard and not letting up for a moment.

"Oh, _fuck_! Oh, _yes_! Oh, _Taz_!"

He comes with three almighty jerks of his hips, each more desperate than the last, but each time he remembers to be gentle and not put his full strength behind them. He collapses back against the cave floor with a heavy thud and a tremulous sigh.

"That was..."

He obviously can't decide how to describe it, so Taz just smiles up at him and trails the scar just visible on the inside of his thigh.

Up shivers, urging her up and into his warm and tight hold. "You know that's where..."

"Joor accident," she says. "I know. They feel so," she cups his balls, rubbing her thumb between them gently, "real."

Up's blue eyes darken and flare. "You keep doin' that, darlin', and you'll find out."

She intends to find out just how real they are for synthetic replacements again and again until they're both so tired they can't move any more, when she hears a voice calling out.

And then Taz remembers what woke her up.

In a hazy dreamscape she could hear engines and a strange wailing siren, but when she opened her eyes to see if there really was a G.L.E.E. reg. ship in the sky, the noises had stopped and Up had proven too much of a distraction.

Now she can hear tromping footsteps through the mud and she scrambles to find her clothes.

Up's too blissed out to realise their rescue's arrived and he's about to meet their unit in nothing but his...well, not even his moustache!

Taz throws his pants at him. "Get dressed! They're here!"

He looks up at her, lazily eyeing her legs as she pushes them into her pants and does up the fly. "Huh?"

"Now, Up!"

He looks down at his pants, up at her, and then jolts into action when February's voice rings out loud and clear.

"Commander? Taz? You two about here anywhere?"

When Up is half-decent and Taz is dressed, she darts out of the cave and looks to the left to see their entire team marching through the mud towards their cave.

Bug is the first to see her. "Taz!"

The rest follow, heads turning and faces lighting up. Megagirl stands out most in the team, her panels shining brightly, and even she has a smile for the lieutenant.

Tootsie gathers her up in a hug that she can hardly push away, what with her surprise and his strength, and Up is next when he suddenly appears from the cave and is crushed in Tootsie's arms alongside her.

"We thought you mighta been dead!" He wails.

Specs appears, tight curls in place, grinning. "Well, until we got through to the commander here, of course." Something in her pocket beeps. "Oh! We have to run now."

And then Taz and Up are being pushed through the mud and trees by their fellow Rangers, while a sudden howling echoes from behind them, the ground shaking as they run.

Up takes Taz's hand as they sprint, but she doesn't have time to consider it because the rest of the Rangers are moving as if their lives depend on it towards a shining in the distance beyond the trees and she has to concentrate on not tripping over any roots.

They soon break from the forest and skid towards the lowering platform of a G.L.E.E. super-ship, and now Taz knows how they got their asses to the planet so quickly, the super-ship having one of the best engines in the galaxy.

"Get on!" Up yells, pushing her up the ramp and into the ship, the rest of their team following after her with muddy legs and panting breaths.

Specs dashes to the door control across the pod bay and closes the ramp just in time for Taz to catch a glimpse of fang and claw before the bay's locked up tight and the engines are rumbling beneath them.

They all collapse to the not-so-spotless floor and Taz can only ask one thing.

"What de hell was dat?"

Krayonder slides over to her, zapper still in his hand. "Specs managed to get a diagnostic a few hours ago. Turns out what you were sitting right on top of was a form planet."

Taz has only heard stories of these planets, worlds that turn into whatever the inhabitants need, and she suddenly knows she was right the entire time. Something _was _going on, but that something brought her and Up together, their need for each other driving them there, and she's not sure whether she should be grateful or suspicious.

She can't help but doubt whether Up really wants her the way she wants him, because everything that happened down on that alien world could have just been an act being played out, Up forced on by _her_ desire for him.

Taz glances over at him, Krayonder still rattling off in her ear, and Up can't seem to meet her gaze at _all_.

She hates the way that something inside of her, something that feels very much like her heart, breaks.

* * *

><p>Three days later and they're all back at Space-Port, a wild group of Rangers there to meet both her and Up at the docking station and congratulate them on not dying on that 'terrifying' form planet.<p>

She can only nod and set her face sternly against any emotion that might betray her.

Up hasn't spoken to her the whole ride back, instead choosing to keep the company of Bug, and it's not like she hasn't tried talking to him. No, in fact, she's even stooped as low as to see if he gets jealous, whether what he told her about Krayonder was a lie.

It's certainly true from the gun-happy Ranger's side, all too happy to stick with Taz through meals and shifts on the ship, but she doubts Up. He didn't say a word or bat a silver eyelash when she walked about the ship, _alone_, with Krayonder.

It should have driven him crazy, showing her a little something about whether the planet really did screw with them both, but it hasn't and she doesn't want to push it anymore.

She's tough. She can deal with it – even if it hurts like hell.

* * *

><p>They, he and Taz, have a week off to recuperate, and every night, although he hates it, he goes down to the bar, wearing his brand new moustache, and talks to Magma. It's stupid and petty and it doesn't work at all, because Taz doesn't even bother turning up to the only bar on Space-Port, and he doesn't see her during the day anyway.<p>

He knows the whole relationship talk on form planet was a lie, the world reacting to his love for Taz and making her do and say all sorts of crazy things.

He can't help but think of those things when he goes to bed, alone, not even bothering to palm himself because he knows it just won't feel the same. He misses her, and not just as the girlfriend he might've had but as the friend he _did_ have and who he doesn't anymore.

And then on the last night, the Sunday, he can't sleep _at all_, and so he does something he hasn't done in years: he goes to get a glass of warm milk.

The mess is quiet as he sneaks through it gone midnight, wearing only his shorts as he passes the tables with chairs put away upside down on the clean tops. He doesn't bother scoping out the dark kitchen through the swinging doors as he passes through them at the end of the mess hall, and, in hindsight, this could have been a blessing or a curse.

Once he's through the doors, Up turns his head to see that he's not alone and that standing in front of the bright light of the open fridge, in her shortest shorts and tightest tank top, is the one person he's been wanting to talk to and trying to avoid simultaneously.

Taz turns to him as the kitchen doors creak shut behind him, a milk moustache gracing her top lip and a glass of the stuff in her hand, and Up can't ignore the way she makes him feel anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note<strong>: Last chapter coming up next! Thank you for every R&R – they all mean so much to me (:


	5. Chapter 5

'_The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound,_

_I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallowed ground...'_

–_Howl, Florence and the Machine_

* * *

><p>One second she's drinking a glass of cold milk to get rid of the Up-induced headache she's been suffering from all day, after hearing directly from the busty redhead Magma that he's been to see her every night this week, and the next she's pressed against the closed fridge, her milk cast off onto a countertop, and said headache is kissing her like she's everything.<p>

_Everything_.

The next thing she knows his hand is down her shorts, his fingers rubbing her clit, and her hand is down his shorts, palming and stroking his cock in the way she remembers doing last week when they were both so alone and both very much into each other.

But that was last week.

"_Cabrón!_" Taz grunts, throwing her off of him and practically collapsing against the fridge on her wobbly knees. "Get off of me!"

Up's moustache is askew when she looks up at him next, and his shorts are twisted on his _fantastically_-cut hips, but none of this matters when his eyes are practically black and he's staring at her so intensely she can barely catch her breath.

He pins her to the fridge. "I want you so bad, Taz."

She freezes. "No! It was de planet!"

"I know you might not feel for me like I thought, but can't we make somethin' of it? Do we have to go back to– what?"

Taz stares up at him as he questions her sudden unwavering glare. "_Me_? It's _joo_ who changed! I _love_ joo!"

And then everything stills and turns so quiet she thinks time might have really just stopped. But it hasn't, it's moving, because she can see Up's heartbeat pulsing out a Spanish samba in his neck and his eyes are flickering back and forth between hers like he can't believe what she's just said. She can't either.

Taz doesn't have time to backpedal.

Up grabs her face and kisses her, _hard_. He groans against her mouth as she melts in a definite _un_-tough manner, gripping her hips and pulling her up against him.

"What are joo doing?" She asks against his mouth as she feels him pulling her away somewhere.

"I love you, too," he tells her, without any preamble. "And we're gonna do this right."

* * *

><p>They stumble through the door to Up's quarters, lips fused and clothes being pulled off by hands other than their own.<p>

"I hate joo for seeing Magma," Taz tells Up as they throw each other down, naked, onto his bed, the door to his rooms shutting with a soft _swish_ behind them.

"I hate you for going off with Krayonder," is Up's reply as he pulls her on top of him and grasps her hips, lowering them over his thick cock.

Taz takes him inside of her with faltering breath, before setting up a punishing pace and groaning out, "I hate de whole thing."

"Me, too."

"I love joo."

"I love you, too."

* * *

><p>It's something subtle that wakes him, he knows it, but he can't quite put his finger on it when he opens his eyes to his dark quarters and can't see the clock across from his bed.<p>

"Lights on," he grits out, wondering whether Taz is having the same trouble sleeping as he is when he sees it's only four in the morning.

He's about to say 'lights off' when he turns back into his covers and notices the slight figure sleeping beside him. He lifts the duvet and sees Taz, fast asleep, his grey commander-moustache stuck to her neck.

It hits him like lightning, the memories, all of them – Taz and him in so many different positions, kissing, talking, _making love_...

"_Gosh_..."

He can't believe she's here, in his bed, curling up to him as he stares down at her. Because she's so glorious, even without her bandana and her zapper, facing down thousands of bloodthirsty robots, and she's so beautiful, even when she's only wearing her skin.

"Lights, low," Up murmurs, curling his arm around her and stroking a hand down her warm back.

The lights dim until it's dark in his room but there's just enough illumination to see Taz's face. It's a beautiful realisation, a completion of his fantasy, and it'll only take one thing to make it better.

Up rolls her onto his chest, slipping his legs between hers, and cupping a hand over her mound, feeling out the topmost curve of her slit to find her–

Taz jolts awake as he rubs her clit and it only takes her a second to get her bearings before she's riding him to kingdom-fucking-come. When they're both spent, her black hair around her face like a fuzzy halo, she lifts herself off of his chest to whisper in his ear.

"Thought about joo a lot, Up – many's de time I've dreamed of dis."

He just grins, peeling his moustache off of her soft and slender neck, before turning them both over and completing that fantasy of his– _theirs_ again, and, if they aren't too tired, _again_.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Finis<strong>_


End file.
